Apple tv, new movies moving to itunes.

[dreamstalker]

Hi,

I have recently purchased an ATV and I love it, but I don't understand the syncing system.

I have ipods and a macbook so I am not a complete beginner but I cant seem to solve my problem myself so I would appreciate a little help.

When I download movies and programs direct to my ATV and then it syncs with itunes ( which it does automatically whenever I open my macbook) it transfers my recent downloads to my itunes. I do not want this. I want to watch the program direct from the ATV to get the best quality. I would be happy if it placed a copy onto itunes but it removes it from the ATV entirely.

I then have to go through the process of putting what I want to watch back on the ATV.

Is there a setting I can change somewhere to help me with this? Basically I want things to stay where they are unless I want to move them. Not sure this is just a case of stopping automatic syncing, because when I set up a sync the ATV still seems determined to move my new downloads onto itunes. Starting to get annoying.

why it is setup like this is beyond me.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[dawindmg08]

I think you need to disable automatic syncing under the ATV settings in the iTunes sidebar. That will allow you to move media at will without it doing anything automatically.

Are you sure the ATV is DELETING the purchases once it syncs them? That sounds very odd; it should just sync, not sync then remove.

 

[dreamstalker]

I think you need to disable automatic syncing under the ATV settings in the iTunes sidebar. That will allow you to move media at will without it doing anything automatically.

Are you sure the ATV is DELETING the purchases once it syncs them? That sounds very odd; it should just sync, not sync then remove.

Thanks for your reply.

I have stopped it syncing automatically, but when I choose to sync I only have control over what I am putting onto the ATV. Things I have downloaded direct to ATV still want to transfer onto itunes.

Yes it does seem to be moving the files from ATV to itunes rather than just syncing them. Once it has done this I have to have itunes open and connected with ATV in order to stream the files onto the tv. When itunes is shut the shows do not show up in ATV menu. It is very strange. I know I could just download things to itunes and move things over to ATV from there to cut down the process but it just seems mad to me that this is what happens by default.

Thanks for your help though.

 

[mstrze]

Well iTunes IS essentially the database that drives your ATV. So, ALL the info needs to be transfered back there.

I guess since you did have syncing turned on, it would only have the movies and music that you specify stored on the AppleTV so I guess, in effect, it should delete files you did not specify as wanting to be synced to your AppleTV.

I don't sync anything...juts stream all my content from iTunes. FWIW all my most recent purchases on ATV and haven't been deleted (up to my 40GB limit) reside locally on the ATV...not that it really matters. (redid my network recently and got to see what was 'native' to my ATV).

 

[thesmall]

i m waitng for hangouver to cum on atv... u'll laughall day long pretty hilarious...

 

[dreamstalker]

Well iTunes IS essentially the database that drives your ATV. So, ALL the info needs to be transfered back there.

I guess since you did have syncing turned on, it would only have the movies and music that you specify stored on the AppleTV so I guess, in effect, it should delete files you did not specify as wanting to be synced to your AppleTV.

I don't sync anything...juts stream all my content from iTunes. FWIW all my most recent purchases on ATV and haven't been deleted (up to my 40GB limit) reside locally on the ATV...not that it really matters. (redid my network recently and got to see what was 'native' to my ATV).

Yeah I understand that itunes is the hub for it all and it makes sense for things to be copied over to it when they are synced. But surly it should put a copy onto itunes so I have 1 on ATV and 1 on itunes like any other device. yet it makes me remove it totally to itunes and then copy it back over. stupid.

 

[JPM]

As mstrze pointed out, iTunes is the database for the AppleTV. In automatic sync mode, iTunes decides through some logic what to sync with the TV and what to stream from the computer. I don't sync mine this way, so I don't know too much about how iTunes makes the choices other than unwatched movies take precedence over watched ones (i.e. if it has to choose, it will sync the unwatched and stream the already watched). And it may by default not sync already watched content.

If you want complete control of what resides on the TV, you need to go into the sync settings for it, and on each tab make sure the "sync..." is checked and the "automatically include..." is unchecked. Then check all of the items you want to sync. I think that will accomplish most of what you want. You're still stuck with the movies syncing back to iTunes (unless you completely disassociate the aTV with your computers, which is also possible).

There is no difference in quality watching on the TV if a movie is streamed. It's the same movie file. The only thing that could mess things up is network congestion causing hiccups in the streaming.

Hope this helps.